A little light entertainment: 1939 Ford 1 ton Utility restoration

[jack neville]

The front panel would not stay where I wanted it to due to excessive stretching particularly at the bottom. So a lot of shrinking and hammering and it came back to a much better fit. Front timber also done. There was probably a jig to assemble these composite timber steel bodies so without one it is rather difficult to work out the next step. This front panel doesn't actually get attached until after the side panels are fitted first.

[jack neville]

With the front wall frame shaped and assembled I was able to put that in place on the chassis temporarily and prop it up and attach the side top rails. These composite bodies have rather weak corners so I added a 4mm thick angle to the outside of the front corners and tapped it to take some countersunk bolts.
The rear end of the top rails are also propped up so I could hang the side panels on the top rail to see how they look.

[jack neville]

One thing I only just learned is that these Australian utes have two different rear body lengths. The roadster cab have a rear body about 100 mm shorter than the rear body on the full cab. As this was a body from a full cab civilian version it is the longer one so I had to trim the floor strips down.

[jack neville]

The rear floor cross members are all done and sit level.
I added the internal corner brace and bolted up the reinforced corners. There is a folded steel piece that reinforces the tilt bow brackets that is screwed under the top rail. This was added as well.

[jack neville]

I then added the side panels. These after clamping in tight to the contour of the front corners are simply nailed to the corner post and nailed along the top rail. I will leave the top nails out for now till I have worked out the way to tackle the rear corners.
So far it is coming up level and square and lines up perfectly with the front cab lines.

[Keith Webb]

Excellent work Jack, I'm really enjoying watching your progress on a very challenging restoration.

[jack neville]

Thanks Keith. It still bemuses me how complicated the construction of these vehicles is. The crazy part is how after you nail sheetmetal to timber the finishing off requires welding of the corners over the timber and trying to stop the timber smouldering. Why weren’t they welded entirely in the first place? I guess cost must factor into it somehow.